Kylie Backs Child’s Voice Appeal

22092008

Kylie has joined forces with The Sun and charity ChildLine to help kids escape violence and abuse. The singer is backing a new campaign to boost vital phone helplines used by thousands of vulnerable and victimised children each year. At present, for every youngster talking to a ChildLine counsellor, another cannot get through due to under-funding.

In 2006, The Sun called on then Chancellor Gordon Brown to help fund these vital services — and he responded generously with a £30million pledge, however a further £50million is still needed to run and develop the helplines of ChildLine and its sister charity the NSPCC, which allows adults to report child abuse.

The Child’s Voice Appeal is a three-year campaign that will help ChildLine answer more calls and protect more children. It will also use funds raised to make the unique service available to children by phone, online and by text.

Kylie told The Sun, “Finding the courage to tell someone about being abused is one of the most difficult decisions a child will ever have to make. Sadly their cries for help are not always heard because ChildLine is unable to speak to every child who rings the 0800 1111 number. We can all help to change that by supporting the NSPCC’S Child’s Voice Appeal and make sure those children no longer face their troubles alone.”

ChildLine will be increasing its call centres to 15 next year and will need to boost its volunteer counselling force from 1,200 to nearly 1,800 to help them try to answer every call.

The charity’s founder and patron Esther Rantzen said, “Last year we received 2.3million calls from over half a million children, many calling more than once in their attempts to get through. From the switchboard, 1.2million calls got passed on to a queue to speak to a counsellor, of which only 640,000 got through to one. Children call about a range of issues, from family relationship problems, exam stress and bullying to the more harmful, such as physical and sexual abuse.

“It takes great courage for each child to pick up the telephone and it is vital that each call is answered. If a child doesn’t get through the first time, he or she may never call back again. Recently I was doing a shift and overheard a volunteer counsellor talking to a child who was standing on the parapet of a footbridge on a motorway — she just couldn’t stand life any more.

“The police were trying to persuade her to climb down but it was ChildLine she called and eventually the counsellor persuaded her to give her phone to the police and he asked the officers to back off. He then persuaded the girl that life was worth living and that ChildLine would always be there for her. Eventually she climbed back to safety.

“Given the courage that call must have taken, I can’t imagine what would have happened if ChildLine didn’t exist and if she hadn’t been able to get through. We might have lost a young life.”

Bullying is the commonest problem that children ring ChildLine about, accounting for 18 per cent of calls.

Next are calls about family relationships (13 per cent), physical abuse (ten per cent), sexual abuse (eight per cent), facts of life (six per cent), concern for others (five per cent) and pregnancy (four per cent).

You can make a donation to the Child’s Voice Appeal in the following ways;

4 responses

The NSPCC is something that really does need your support. The work they do is tremendous on the amount of funding that they get. Not wanting to sound preachy, but if you can afford a few quid, please consider making a donation.